‘I truly love the work more than anything else in this world’: Elder LeGrand Richards’s special witness of Jesus Christ

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Editor’s note: The following excerpt comes from a book about special witnesses of Jesus Christ. You can read this chapter in its entirety at truthwillprevail.xyz as well as other chapters as they are posted. This excerpt is republished here with permission and has been edited for clarity.

In 1942, Presiding Bishop LeGrand Richards suffered a severe heart attack that nearly killed him and forced him into bed to heal and convalesce. At a critical moment when it was thought Bishop Richards might die, he was blessed by Elder Harold B. Lee, who related that “In a brief moment, when my hands were on the head of Brother Richards, I knew that the Lord loved him and that he was going to live. The certainty of that was as sure to me as it is today that he was spared for a great and glorious mission.”1 Bishop Richards later told President J. Reuben Clark that he thought seeing others working while not being able to himself was his definition of hell.2

While serving as Presiding Bishop, he decided to use notes and outlines he had created and used on his last mission to write a book that would assist in missionary work. Thus was born one of the best-selling and most important (non-scriptural) books in the Church for the 20th century. Regarding A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, Elder Richards said:

That’s the greatest missionary book the Church has got except the Book of Mormon. They sell more of it than any book they have except the Book of Mormon. At the present time they have distributed about two million copies; they distribute from fifty to a hundred thousand copies a year; have done for the last five years here out of Salt Lake and there is a printing plant over in England where they publish for all of the British Isles, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and then it’s published in eighteen different languages in other nations. I had written an outline for my missionaries down in the South called “The Message of Mormonism.” I had that mimeographed and gave them each a copy and when I came home I got so many requests for that I said to myself—Why don’t I develop those outlines the way I would present them if I were going into a home one night a week for six months and that’s what brought the Marvelous Work and a Wonder into existence.3

Elder Richards took great pride in talking about how influential his book became in helping bring people into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also refused a royalty, wanting the price to be as low as possible.

Call to the Apostleship

Elder Richards briefly shared the story of his call as a special witness: “At the close of the morning session of April conference, in 1952, Brother Moyle came up to me and said that ‘President McKay would like to meet you at his office.’ So I came over here [to the Church Administration Building] to President McKay’s office. I went in and he told me that they had decided to appoint me to fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve. Of course, I wept, and he wept, and we hugged each other. I was sustained that afternoon in the conference meeting in the Tabernacle. Then, that afternoon I was ordained to be an Apostle. [I was] given the [apostolic] charge, [and was told] that that [calling] would come first in my life in everything; anything else had to come in second.”

In his acceptance address in the last session, he testified: “I truly love the work more than anything else in this world, and I know it is true. I could live better without the limbs of my body than I could without the testimony of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of the Lord.”5 And, “Like Nephi of old said, He [the Lord] hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh. (See 2 Nephi 4:21.) I feel sorry for Latter-day Saints if they have never felt that power, and that blessing, unto almost the consumption of their flesh.”6

Of his call and ordination, he later noted:

During the summer months, the vacation period, I had to spend a few weeks at home with a little ailment. It gave me an opportunity to read a few books, and I read my patriarchal blessing and the blessings that I received from presidents of the Church when I was set apart as mission president twice; when I was set apart as the Presiding Bishop of the Church; and last of all when President David O. McKay, assisted by his counselors and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve, laid his hands upon my head twenty-four years ago last April in the holy temple and ordained me an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the blessing, President McKay gave me a charge that I should be a witness of Him, and that I should bear witness of His divine calling and the divine calling of His prophet Joseph Smith and of the truths of the restored gospel. And my, the joy I have had in these 24 1/2 years trying to respond and be obedient to the charge that President McKay gave me upon that occasion. I have had great joy and happiness therein.7

Speaking by the Power of the Holy Ghost

To speak and teach by the power of the Holy Ghost would seem to have been Elder Richards’s spiritual gift. He often commented on how he felt when preaching the gospel: “When I was a young boy in a little country town, I can remember our Sunday School teacher giving us the words of John the Baptist when he said that he baptized with water for the forgiveness of sins but he said: ‘One mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire’ (Luke 3:16). I couldn’t imagine what that fire meant when I was a boy but I have lived long enough to know. I have been lifted beyond my own natural abilities under the influence and power of the Spirit of the Lord as I have borne witness of the truth of this gospel upon many occasions until it is a part of my very being, and I would like to give you that testimony.”8 Again, “When I was appointed a member of the Twelve, I said from this pulpit that I would rather have my children enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost than any other person or individual in this world; and I feel the same today, for them and for me, and for all of you.”9

He bore his special witness by the power of the Holy Spirit: “I express my love for my Father in heaven and for his great love that gave us his Only Begotten Son, and for his great atoning sacrifice, and for the great honor and privilege that has been mine through the years to represent him as one of his ambassadors of eternal truth, to be a witness to his divinity. I do testify to you today that I know that Christ lives, that he is the Redeemer of the world, and that he has given us his church through restoration in this dispensation through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and a pattern of life to live by through his gospel that will bring us joy and happiness in this life and exaltation through the worlds to come.”10

Further: “With all my heart and soul, I know this is the Lord’s work, that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world, the head of His church, that Joseph Smith was His prophet, for the establishment of His kingdom here upon this earth in the latter days to prepare the way for His second coming.”11

In 1978, not long before President Kimball received the revelation on the priesthood, Elder Richards was blessed with a special spiritual experience while meeting with his brethren in the temple:

The . . . experience occurred in the Salt Lake Temple on May 4, 1978, at a meeting of the General Authorities. It is told in part by Elder Boyd K. Packer, upon whom it had a profound effect. Testimonies had been borne, Elder Richards first and then each taking his turn. Later, Brother Richards asked to speak. Elder Packer quotes him: “Brethren, I have something to tell you. A little while ago, I saw a man seated above the organ there and he looked just like that.” (He gestured toward President Wilford Woodruff's portrait which hangs in the room.) He then added, “I saw him just as clearly as I see any of you Brethren.” Of the experience, Elder Richards said: “He was dressed in a white suit and was seated in an armchair. I thought at the time that the reason I was privileged to see him was probably that I was the only one there who had ever seen President Woodruff while he was upon the earth. I had heard him dedicate the Salt Lake Temple and I had heard him give his last sermon in the Salt Lake Tabernacle before he died. I thought it wonderful that the Lord could project, without mechanical means, the likeness of a man long since dead.” As Elder Packer says of Brother Richards, “He links us back. Here is a man who rubbed shoulders with those who stood with the Prophet Joseph Smith.”12

Some have thought this appearance of President Woodruff to Elder Richards to be a prelude to the revelation on the priesthood since President Woodruff was also involved with issuing a manifesto (Official Declaration 1) that drastically altered church practice.

In his final years, in one of his last great talks to the saints, Elder Richards declared: “When I first became a missionary, I never met anybody who believed in a personal God. My, what a joy to realize that Christ gave his life for us, and took upon him the sins of the world—as Paul said: ‘As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Cor. 15:22)—and to know that his Father is as real as my father and that they have revealed themselves as two glorified personages in this dispensation, after centuries of darkness, unto the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Lord had him in waiting thousands of years ago, according to the Book of Mormon, for his day and time to come, to bring men to a knowledge of the truth and to bring forth his truth among the people of this world. These are great truths, and many more can be taught.”13 

And finally: “Remember the words of Peter, that we have a more sure word of prophecy and that we do well to take heed. I want to bear you my testimony here that this is the work of God the Eternal Father. As I stand here as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bear you my witness that the prophecies of Malachi that I have referred to have been fulfilled in the restoration of the gospel at the hands of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the holy prophets who have succeeded him at the head of this church, even to our present prophet, President Spencer W. Kimball, whom I honor with all my heart, as I do all my brethren of the General Authorities.”14 

Read this chapter in its entirety at truthwillprevail.xyz.


Notes

1. Conference Report, April 1952, 126.

2. Lucille C. Tate, LeGrand Richards: Beloved Apostle, 222.

3. Video interview, “LeGrand Richards: The Man and His Missions,” 1983. This book was required to pass through the internal reading committee of the general authorities before it could be approved for publication. Regarding this process, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith recorded: “I was in session with Elders Harold B. Lee, Marion G. Romney and Bishop Legrand Richards. The first two brethren and I are members of the publication committee. Bishop Richards has written a book on gospel principles which he desires to have published for the benefit of missionaries. Each member of the committee went over the manuscript separately and then made a report on the findings. This report contained many suggestions and corrections in the doctrine of this treatise. It took us four hours to consider these matters with the Bishop, some of our conclusions not pleasing him, some of which he felt were vital to his story. In most instances, after considerable discussion we convinced him, but in others he was not convinced, but in our united judgment he was in error” (Joseph Fielding Smith diary, July 18, 1949).

4. Video interview, “LeGrand Richards: The Man and His Missions,” 1983.

5. Conference Report, April 1952, 113.

6. Ibid.

7. “The Simplicity in Christ,” Ensign, November 1976.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. “In the Mountain of the Lord’s House,” Ensign, May 1971.

11. “The Simplicity in Christ,” Ensign, November 1976.

12. Tate, LeGrand Richards, 291-92.

13. “What the Gospel Teaches,” Ensign, May 1982.

14. “The Second Coming of Christ,” Ensign, May 1978.

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